Agrarian reform is redistribution of the agricultural resources of a country. Traditionally, agrarian, or land, reform is confined to the redistribution of land; in a broader sense it includes related changes in agricultural institutions, including credit, taxation, rents, and cooperatives. While agrarian reform can result in lower agricultural productivity, especially if it includes collectivization, it may increase productivity when land is redistributed to the tiller. Pressure for modern land reform is most powerful in the underdeveloped nations.
Three-quarters of the world's 852 million men and women suffering from hunger are found in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their survival. Most of them are landless farmers or have such tiny or unproductive plots of land that they cannot feed their families.
For many of these poor farmers, new development opportunities in rural areas would allow more equitable access to basic land and water resources while offering an escape from hunger and poverty.
There are five main themes to agrarian reform:
- policies and experiences that have improved resource access by the poorest people;
- improving local natural resource planning and management capabilities;
- identifying new development opportunities to strengthen rural communities;
- combining such concepts as agrarian reform, social justice and sustainable development;
- the primary role of food sovereignty and its contribution to more equitable resource access.
Tying agrarian reform into my country, African agrarian reforms have included distribution of excess land, nationalization of all land, abolition of all land titles to be replaced by rights of occupancy, and promotion of farming collectives. These reforms occurred with limited success.
Agrarian Reform: A way out of hunger and poverty for millions of impoverished small farmers
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